Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[Cleon]

Originally Posted by Shade

Agreed! Updated.

"but to occasionally swip unattended valuables"

Swip?

Methinks you're missing an "e" there.

Apart from the typo that Phase Dragon looks finished.

[Shade]

Someone swipped my "e".

Fixed.

[Shade]

Thendar
FREQUENCY: Rare on Astral Plane; very rare elsewhere
NO. APPEARING: 1 (5% chance of 2-8)
ARMOR CLASS: See below
MOVE: 17" to 20" on Astral Plane; 12" elsewhere
HIT DICE: 5 + 5
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: See below
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 weapon
DAMAGE/ATTACK: By weapon type
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Spell use
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Spell use, spell immunities
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 25%
INTELLIGENCE: Genius to supra-genius
ALIGNMENT: Neutral good
SIZE: M (6. to 6½. tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Immune to psionic attack
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: VI/550 + 6/hp

Thendar are native to the Astral Plane, though they may be found on any of the known planes. They are a wandering race, seldom remaining in one place for very long. Thendar are generally peaceful and have a great thirst for knowledge of all sorts. They have life spans ranging in the thousands of years, and seek out new experiences to relieve the monotony of their existence.

Thendar appear to be tall, slender humans with golden skin, silvery hair, and glowing white eyes. They prefer to wear hooded robes of durable gray or blue material. Thendar do not usually collect treasure but may carry a memento or two picked up during their travels. Ornate jewelry, magical staffs, walking sticks, and other such items are typical examples. Such items will not usually have any great magical power but may have some value as antiques on the worlds where they were acquired, as they are liable to be several centuries old. Weapons are rarely carried or used.

Thendar possess natural true seeing and communicate by an innate ability to understand all spoken languages, as per tongues. They have normal ultravision. They may use the following spell-like powers, one at a time, one per round, at the 12th level of ability: change self, dimension door, light, magic missile (5 times/day), plane shift (2/day), project image (l/day), sunburst (as per wand of light, S/day), wall of force (1/day). Thendar have excellent memories, never forgetting anything that they have experienced. They are immune to the effects of feeblemind or forget spells as well as all psionic attacks or powers.

Because of their long lives and far travels, thendar are great sources of information. They may answer questions as sages, with special categories in the inner and outer planes and major fields in humankind, demi-humankind, humanoids, and giantkind. The prices asked to provide such knowledge to other races are often unusual. Minor questions have been answered for no more than a demonstration of a simple knot or the telling of an old folktale. More exacting information has been gained simply by allowing the thendar to accompany the party and observe their actions for a time (if the thendar found the journey interesting) or in exchange for an equally arcane bit of knowledge. Thendar are only interested in lore that they do not already possess.

The githyanki hold a particular hatred for the thendar, who respond with only an indifferent annoyance. The thendar are on good terms with astral devas and star leviathans (see DRAGON issue #89, Creature Catalog I).

Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #101 (1985).

[freyar]

Outsider or humanoid (extraplanar)? I'm leaning toward humanoid myself.

[Shade]

I see 'em as outsiders.

[freyar]

Sell me on it! What do they exemplify?

[Shade]

Touche'.

Originally Posted by SRD

An outsider is at least partially composed of the essence (but not necessarily the material) of some plane other than the Material Plane. Some creatures start out as some other type and become outsiders when they attain a higher (or lower) state of spiritual existence.

Originally Posted by Manual of the Planes

The Astral Plane has few native forms. It does have a lot of travelers, and some natives of other planes have taken up permanent residence there. The most notable of the "almost natives" are the githyanki, a race that long ago fled their mind flayer masters and established their own tyranny almost as bloodthirsty as that of their illithid enslavers. The astral dreadnought may be a form of native life, but that creature's origin is difficult to study.

Originally Posted by Thendar entry

Thendar are native to the Astral Plane, though they may be found on any of the known planes.

I realize that's not the strongest argument, but that's enough for me.

Also, I have a hard time accepting a 5 HD creature with a boatload of SLAs and a lifespan akin to dragons as being of the humanoid type!

[freyar]

Ehh, good enough for me too. But drow are halfway there in SLAs and lifespan.

[demiurge1138]

Yeah, the SLAs push it over the top for me. Considering how powerful those SLAs are (and we might want to consider pushing sunburst down to, say, searing light), I would definitely suggest increasing the HD. After all, in previous editions things like bone devils only had 5 HD.

[freyar]

The SLA comparison is pretty decent with bone devils, too. 10HD?

[Shade]

That works for me.

Str 11, Dex 15, Con 20, Int 22, Wis 20, Cha 19?

[freyar]

Those scores seem good to me.

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

[freyar]

Wow, so much already!

No natural, I think, but I could go for a deflection bonus to AC.

Give them some kind of ability to use all Knowledge skills as if trained or a racial bonus or something?

[Shade]

Another chance to use this!

Knowledgeable (Ex): A faerie phiz makes Knowledge checks for any Knowledge skills as if it had a minimum of 10 ranks in that skill. To surpass the 10-rank minimum, it must assign more than 10 ranks to the skill as normal.

[freyar]

Yes! I knew we'd used that somewhere recently!

[demiurge1138]

Agreed to knowledgable and to an unearthly grace-type ability. Considering their affinity for force effects, giving them mage armor wouldn't be much of a stretch.

[Cleon]

Originally Posted by Shade

That works for me.

Str 11, Dex 15, Con 20, Int 22, Wis 20, Cha 19?

The original has Int 17-20, so that seems to be a bit of an inflation. I'd drop the mental stats by 2 apiece, and likely swapped Int and Wis around since these seem more of a "wise sage" trope than a "cunning savant".

The Constitution also seems rather high. I'm not seeing anything in the description that indicates they're super-robust, although the 5+5 HD suggests better than average Con, so would cut it down a bit.

So, I prefer Str 11, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 20, Cha 17

[Cleon]

Originally Posted by freyar

Outsider or humanoid (extraplanar)? I'm leaning toward humanoid myself.

I agree with Outsider, since they're native to the astral plane and have all those magical powers. I suspect they were once Humanoid (Extraplanar), but that was long ago.

[RavinRay]

I was about to wonder about their relationship to the githyanki before I came to the very bottom of the article. Outsider for me as well. I'm surprised they don't view the 'yanki as pesky interlopers. I was wondering about the Con 20 too.